The Philippine Online Chronicles

With the Supreme Court's recent final and favorable ruling, there's no more stopping our road to the poll automation on May 10. The doubts and worries coming from many concerned citizens are understandable, because we are embarking on a new, unfamiliar terrain with less than three months to go.

These fears emanated from the observations made during the mock-poll last February 6. There were concerns about the inadequate manner of shading of the ovals in the ballots that led to their rejection by the Precint Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines. There were also complaints about the small font sizes of the letters on the ballot from senior citizens with poor eyesight. Noted were lapses in security, such as the inaccurate fit of the PCOS machine slots and the ballot boxes that makes it possible to insert a ballot in the box without going through the machines; and technical problems like transmission delays and errors that may arise due to power outages.

Nothing is perfect, especially if you're introducing a process this complicated and massive. Poll watchdogs such as the NAMFREL and other concern groups vigilantly covered the mock-poll with their own checklists. That's what the exercise was all about – to iron out the kinks and glitches, and for the proper authorities to come up with contingency measures during our date with fate.

The Comelec is doing all it can and noted that the exercise was almost perfect. There is no question that the ideal target is 100% reliability and credibility for these machines and the automated election system as a whole. But if reports persist about machine malfunctions, contract irregularities, and inadequacy of crucial telecommunication facilities, should be just call off the entire poll automation process?

Having the automated process is a step up in our democratic bid to have a faster, smoother, and “cheat-proof” elections. It would be a tremendous national – and even international – shame if we give in to our fears and paranoia and abandon the exercise altogether to return to manual counting of votes.

What we have to realize is that the nightmare scenario – having a leadership vacuum due to election failure – can happen NOT because of technological glitches alone but because of human intervention.

Of course we have to take care and be on our guard to make sure these machines maintain their optimum performance in our run-up to the election day and most especially during that day itself. But we have to be more vigilant against ill-intentioned groups that will attempt to sabotage the whole process by cheating and other means of vote manipulation. If there's a will, there's a way – and with greater security comes greater desperation among cheaters.

The Supreme Court is right in upholding poll automation by saying that the arguments against it dwelt on possibility that may or may not occur. It is right in reminding anti-fraud advocates that instead of undermining the efforts of the Comelec to transform our country's electoral process, they should work hand in hand with the poll body in ensure its successful implementation.

Automated or not, there is always the fear of ballot snatching, vote buying, violence and coercion. The Comelec tells us that we should work together, “instead of trying to criticize the change that we want to implement”, they said.

Some people may be skeptical, some may still be technophobic. But we must give this a chance.

In other words, to give in to the speculations and conjectures is to surrender to the darkness and acknowledge our inability to institute progressive change. The SC decision is a good wake up call to all of us. We have no choice but to take it positively and do our part in creating a brighter future. We must stop spreading on poll cheating assumptions, trust the institution and be vigilant.

Modern mom to four kids, Megan takes pride and finds joy in being a stay-at-home mom. She is a graduate of Communication Arts with a post-grad degree in Bachelor of Laws, but has put her career in government service temporarily on hold to personally take care of her growing children Megan blogs at Over A Cup of Coffee.